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Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Pete McMartin: Sometimes, even a Bruins fan deserves an act of kindness

Drayden Pitcairn

This morning, possibly as you read this, 12-year-old Drayden Pitcairn, Pee Wee hockey player for the Surrey Thunder and, inexplicably, a rabid Boston Bruins fan who wears the number 4 just like Bobby Orr, will go with his father, Ian, to Rogers Arena on the premise that his father is buying him a Team Canada jersey at the arena souvenir shop. Drayden has no interest in buying a Canucks jersey.

But they are not, in fact, going to go the souvenir shop. Instead — and all of this is a surprise to Drayden — he and his father will watch the Bruins at their morning practice skate.

Then he and his father, who is a Delta police officer, will be escorted back to the Bruins’ dressing room where Drayden will meet the team and, most especially, Milan Lucic, who, despite being the devil incarnate to Canucks fans, is a god to Drayden. Then Drayden will be presented with a Bruins team jersey.

“So a 12-year-old kid who’s had a rough four weeks,” said his dad, “will have the time of his life.”

That rough time began after Drayden played in a Port Moody hockey tournament on Nov. 8. The next morning, he woke up with a severe headache and began to vomit.

This had happened before. He had been complaining of headaches for a few years, and a year ago he suffered a concussion during a game. This past April, his parents had Drayden examined by a neurologist. It was thought the headaches might be related to the concussion. The neurologist scheduled Drayden for an MRI in January, 2014.

But because of what happened after the hockey tournament, his parents weren’t about to wait that long. His father rushed him to Children’s Hospital.

“I took him to Children’s Hospital and the ER doctor discovered an issue when checking Drayden eyes that led him to call in an eye doctor,” said Ian. “The eye doctor was able to determine that Drayden had pressure on the back of his eyes, and a CT scan was ordered. It was discovered that Drayden had a brain tumour, and the tumour was blocking one the ventricles that drain cerebrospinal fluid — the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord — causing the fluid to be trapped in the brain.”

Drayden underwent surgery the next day. It released the pressure on his brain, and a biopsy of the tumour was taken.

He endured a second surgery the day after. It was seven hours long. The tumour was removed. The pathology report on the tumour subsequently proved it to be benign.

Drayden spent the next week in the hospital recuperating. All the time he was there, he wore his Boston Bruins pyjamas, T-shirts and toque — which, since the Canucks are major sponsors of Children’s Hospital, were a subject of some comment.

“Oh, he got some ribbing from the nurses,” his father said. “Gently, of course, but they let him know.”

When word got out about Drayden’s surgery, and his recovering at home, several things happened.

His teammates, in his honour, all put 4s on their jerseys.

The kids in his Grade 7 class sent him get-well cards, all of them decorated with the Bruins logo.

A local Delta charity, Delta Assist, held a draw for its annual Christmas hamper fundraiser. The draw was for a pair of tickets to tonight’s Canucks-Bruins game, and lo and behold, Ian’s wife, Sharon, won them. Possibly a fix was in.

Drayden and his dad will be sitting in Section 308, Row 11, Seats 109 and 110. Drayden will be the one wearing a Bruins jersey — possibly the one given to him by the team.

That team jersey, and the visit to the Bruins lockerroom, was made possible by one of Ian’s buddies, Jim Gravel, also a Delta policeman who works in the same office as Ian. Gravel knew Drayden was a Bruins fan, and thought he might be able to do something to help.

“My cousin is Doug Houda, who is a coach for Boston,” he told me. “I contacted him and he has arranged for Drayden and his dad to attend the morning skate at Rogers Arena on Saturday at 11:30.

“I know there is a huge rivalry between the two teams, but I think this story rises above that.”

That was two days ago. Even on such short notice, Ian said, the Bruins front office “was all over it.”

“From what I heard from Jim, there was no issue. They wanted to do something for the kid.”

And the kid?

He is now resting at home, his father said, and will have more testing over the next few months to see what if any further medical treatment is required.

“Every day he’s getting better. The prognosis is good, but still guarded. There are still things that have to be watched and still tests he has to go through.”

But then Drayden is a resilient sort. After the Bruins beat the Canucks in the seventh game to win the Stanley Cup in 2011, he wore his Boston Bruins jersey to school the next day. If he survived that, what’s a little brain surgery?

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